[Significance of vitamin E in aging]

In order to understand and investigate the phenomenon of aging and its related characteristics various hypotheses have been put forward. Among these the free radical hypothesis is the best known and the most often discussed. Considering the biological function of vitamin E as an important preventive factor, for lipid peroxidation, and on the basis of existing parallelisms between some characteristics of aging and different symptoms of tocopherol deficiency, a possible influence of this vitamin on the aging process was postulated. Many authors showed that high doses of vitamin E decrease synthesis and accumulation of aging-accompanied lipofuscin pigments. Nevertheless, no reasonable additional influence of such vitamin dosage is known for the aging process, especially on the elongation of the maximal life span in mammals. While high tocopherol concentrations inhibit the aggregation of thrombocytes induced in vitro, under in vivo conditions the supposed benefit of therapeutic use of vitamin E to diminish the high platelet aggregation rate noticed in patients with cardiovascular diseases is still not confirmed. Investigations of the vitamin E status in the elderly showed that the plasma tocopherol concentration is increased age-dependent. Considering this parameter the vitamin E status of healthy persons examined (n = 41; age 62-98 years of both sexes) was satisfactory.